(NEW YORK) — Prosecutors are taking over the case of a 14-year-old New Jersey girl who has been missing for nearly a month.
Jashyah Moore, 14, was last seen around 10 a.m. on Oct. 14 at Poppie’s Deli Store in East Orange.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II called her disappearance “particularly troubling.”
“Our society cannot ignore the fact that a 14-year-old girl, otherwise normal in all respects as far as we can tell, would disappear without a trace on a sunny day on a central thoroughfare,” he said at a news conference Wednesday.
The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office has superseded the investigation and now will be the lead agency, Stephens said, though East Orange police, the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, New Jersey State Police and Orange police will continue to be involved.
“This case cries out and demands our attention,” Stephens said.
There’s still little information about the mysterious case. When asked about surveillance video, Stephens told reporters Wednesday, “There is video, and we’ve captured all that we can and will continue to go through that.”
He added that investigators “have gone through cell phones of anyone associated.”
Moore’s desperate family held a search party Tuesday night.
“Please, my daughter is 14 years old, she does not deserve this, she did not run away,” her mother, Jamie Moore, told ABC New York station WABC on Tuesday. “I love you Jashyah. If you see this, don’t be scared. Mommy is going to find you.”
(BENTON HARBOR, Mich.) — Construction has finally begun in Benton Harbor, Michigan, to replace the lead-tainted service lines that have been poisoning the predominantly Black community’s water supply for years.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer went the western Michigan city on Tuesday to visit a construction site where the first lead service lines are being replaced after the governor previously announced a commitment to remove 100% of the lead service lines in 18 months.
“I am proud of the progress we are making, and I look forward to much more,” Whitmer said in a statement. “I am confident that we can meet our goal to replace 100% of lead service lines in Benton Harbor within 18 months and utilize the $1.3 billion headed our way from the federal bipartisan infrastructure bill specifically for water to protect safe drinking water in every community.”
Whitmer said she attended a community meeting to hear “directly from people on the ground doing the work to help residents.”
“We will not rest until every parent feels confident to give their kid a glass of water, knowing that it is safe,” the governor added.
Some residents have expressed remorse that the government action and attention to the water crisis is coming too late.
Elevated levels of lead have been detected in the Benton Harbor’s water system since at least 2018, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council petition filed in September to the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of local advocacy groups and residents.
Residents live with “significant and dangerous levels of lead contamination three years after the contamination was first discovered with no immediate solution in sight,” the petition stated, calling it an “environmental justice” issue.
Some 45% of Benton Harbor residents live in poverty and 85% are Black, according to the most-recent Census data. The crisis has also shined a harsh spotlight on the real-world impacts of the nation’s dilapidated infrastructure as lawmakers in the nation’s capital are mulling over the Biden administration’s $1 trillion “Build Back Better” infrastructure plans.
The estimated cost to replace 100% of the lead service lines in Benton Harbor is $30 million, according to Whitmer’s office. So far, state lawmakers have earmarked some $18.6 million, but a deficit of some $11.4 million remains. Whitmer has previously called on the state legislature to secure this money using the remaining federal funds sent to Michigan through the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan.
“We need to get the lead out of Benton Harbor ASAP and this funding will replace approximately 100 lead service lines right now,” Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad said in a statement Tuesday. “My focus is on protecting the residents of this great city and I look forward to 100% of the lead lines being replaced on an aggressive timeline of 18 months to make sure families have access to safe drinking water.”
Last month, Whitmer signed an executive directive that sought to use all available tools to tackle the Benton Harbor water crisis. Some of the actions the directive takes includes ensuring residents continue to have access to free bottled water until further notice (though the distribution of this water has faced some hurdles), offering free or low-cost lead-related services such as drinking water testing kits, and more.
Lead poisoning can bring a slew of detrimental health impacts, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns, including: abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, loss of appetite, pain or tingling in the hands and/or feet and weakness.
Moreover, census data from Benton Harbor further indicates that nearly 28% of the population is children under 18 years old. The CDC states on its website that lead generally affects children more than it does adults, and children tend to show signs of severe lead toxicity at lower levels than adults.
(NEW YORK) — More than 22 million infants across the globe didn’t get their first measles vaccine dose last year, according to a joint statement Wednesday from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two-thirds of those children live in just 10 countries: Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Angola, the Philippines, Brazil and Afghanistan.
Even in countries with high vaccination rates, anti-vaccine sentiment has led to outbreaks in some communities. In 2019, for example, the United States saw the highest number of preventable measles cases since 1992, according to the CDC.
Measles, one of the most contagious viruses in the world, is “almost entirely preventable” through the two vaccine doses, the WHO and CDC said.
Globally in 2019, 19 million infants missed their first dose; this increase to 22 million marks the biggest jump in two decades, which creates “dangerous conditions for outbreaks,” the organizations warned.
Only 70% of kids received their second dose last year, which is well below the 95% threshold needed to protect communities, the organizations said.
The number of measles cases actually dropped in 2020 to 7.5 million, but Dr. Kate O’Brien, the director of WHO’s department of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, warned in a statement, “evidence suggests we are likely seeing the calm before the storm as the risk of outbreaks continues to grow around the world.”
“It’s critical that countries vaccinate as quickly as possible against COVID-19, but this requires new resources so that it does not come at the cost of essential immunization programs,” O’Brien said. “Routine immunization must be protected and strengthened; otherwise, we risk trading one deadly disease for another.”
(NEW YORK) — Duchess Meghan has responded to a tabloid publisher’s appeal of a privacy case she won earlier this year, saying she is “standing up for what’s right.”
“It’s an arduous process but, again, it’s just me standing up for what’s right,” Meghan said Tuesday at The New York Times DealBook Online Summit. “At a certain point, no matter how difficult it is, you know the difference between right and wrong, you must stand up for what’s right, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Meghan, who now lives in California with her husband, Prince Harry, and their two children, sued Associated Newspapers Ltd., a U.K. tabloid publisher, in 2019 for alleged copyright infringement, misuse of private information and breach of the Data Protection Act over the publication of a handwritten letter she wrote to her now-estranged father, Thomas Markle, in 2018, ahead of her wedding to Harry.
The letter was reproduced by Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, in five articles in February 2019.
Meghan won in a summary judgement earlier this year, but Associated Newspapers has appealed, requesting that the case go to trial and claiming new evidence shows Meghan knew the letter might be made public.
“The fundamental point turns out to be false on the new evidence,” a lawyer for the publishing group said in court Tuesday. “The letter was crafted specifically with the potential of public consumption in mind because the claimant appreciated Mr. Markle might disclose it to the media.”
The new evidence cited by the publishing group is testimony from Harry and Meghan’s former communications secretary Jason Knauf.
Knauf, who reportedly filed a complaint against Meghan in 2018 over her alleged treatment of aides, claims in a witness statement that Meghan “indicated in messages to me that she recognized that it was possible that Mr. Markle would make the letter public.”
“When the Duchess was considering how to handle Mr. Markle’s increasing public interventions – both for concerns about his welfare and also to protect her reputation – she explored options for written communication that might convince him to stop giving interviews, but that could also set the record straight if he gave them to the media,” Knauf said in the statement provided to Associated Newspapers’ lawyers. “The Duchess wanted to make sure that if the letter became public it would assist with setting out her perspective on the problems with her father’s behavior. In the messages on 24 August she said she felt ‘fantastic’ after writing it and added that: ‘And if he leaks it then that’s on his conscious but at least the world will know the truth. Words I could never voice publicly.'”
Knauf also claims Meghan and Harry later authorized specific cooperation in December 2018 with the authors of “Finding Freedom,” a book about her and Prince Harry’s departure from official royal duties. The book was co-authored by Carolyn Durand, a former ABC News producer, and Omid Scobie, currently an ABC News royal contributor.
Knauf cited an email exchange with Prince Harry regarding an upcoming meeting Knauf had with the authors, and provided Harry a list of topics the authors wanted to discuss. He said he expressed to Harry that “being able to say hand on heart that we did not facilitate access will be important” in the email.
According to Knauf, Harry replied, saying: “I totally agree that we have to be able to say we didn’t have anything to do with it. Equally, you giving the right context and background to them would help get some truths out there. The truth is v much needed and would be appreciated, especially around the Markle/wedding stuff but at the same time we can’t put them directly in touch with her friends.”
Knauf claims Meghan also provided him with a list of background information and bullet points to discuss with the authors, including her happiness about moving to Windsor and her relationship with her father and half-siblings.
Lawyers for Associated Newspapers argued during the original privacy lawsuit case that Meghan was trying to manipulate the narrative around her to be more positive, and that she gave or enabled “them [the authors of Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand] to be given a great deal of other information about her personal life, in order to set out her own version of events in a way that is favorable to her.”
Meghan’s lawyers categorically refuted those claims at the time and Meghan did so again Wednesday in a new response to the Associated Newspapers’ appeal.
“It is untrue that my husband and I [or either of us] spoke to the authors for the purposes of the Book. Nor did we meet with them ‘in about late 2018,’ far less did we do so at any time to discuss ‘the ways in which [we] would cooperate in the writing of the Book'(as also alleged. I note that this is effectively confirmed by Mr. Knauf at paragraph 18 of his Witness Statement,” she wrote in a 22-page response to Knauf.
Meghan also stated she did not believe the letter was “likely to reach the public domain,” but “merely recognized that this was a possibility given the extraordinary level of media attention and unusual lens we were all under.”
“To be clear, I did not want any of it to be published, and wanted to ensure that the risk of it being manipulated or misleadingly edited was minimized, were it to be exploited,” she said, adding that writing a letter was the only “viable option” for communicating with her father due to the media intrusion into their relationship.
Meghan also said in her response that it was only until Thomas Markle began including the royal family in his media attacks that senior members of the family expressed concern over wanting him to be stopped. She said she was “eager to please” them, and that the situation was putting significant pressure on Harry.
She said she decided to write the letter in accordance with advice she received from two senior family members, who are not named.
(NEW YORK) — Kyle Rittenhouse took the witness stand on Wednesday to testify in his own defense and began to break down in sobs as he began to describe why he shot the first of three men during a 2020 protest.
Rittenhouse began testifying in a Kenosha County courtroom after telling a judge that he made the decision to testify after consulting with his lawyers.
Under questioning from his attorney Mark Richards, the 18-year-old Rittenhouse began by speaking about his background as a trained lifeguard, a police cadet and a student studying nursing at Arizona State University.
“Did you come to downtown Kenosha to look for trouble?” Richards asked.
Rittenhouse, wearing a blue suit and matching tie, answered, “No.”
Rittenhouse said he went to Kenosha with his sister and friends on Aug. 25, 2020, after seeing online pleas for people to come to the city to help protect it after looting and vandalism broke out after a police officer shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, leaving him paralyzed.
“I went down there to provide first aid,” Rittenhouse testified, adding that he brought along his medical supplies as well as his AR-style semiautomatic rifle.
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. He claimed he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, in self-defense.
Richards directed Rittenhouse to the event of the Aug. 25, 2020, shooting. He testified that he had witnessed a police officer being hit with a brick, another man getting his jaw broken and had been allegedly threatened by Rosenbaum.
He said he got separated from his friends who were guarding three car lots that had been vandalized. He said he was rushing to put out a fire at one of the car lots when he again encountered Rosenbaum and a man named identified by prosecutors as Joshua Ziminski.
“I hear somebody scream ‘Burn in hell,” said Rittenhouse of when he reached the car lot that was being vandalized. “I reply with ‘Friendly, friendly, friendly to let them know hey, I’m just here to help. I don’t want any problems. I just want to put out the fires if there are any.”
Rittenhouse testified that Ziminski pulled a gun and pointed it at him when he approached the car lot with a fire extinguisher.
“As I’m walking towards to put out the fire, I dropped the fire extinguisher and I take a step back (from Ziminski),” Rittenhouse said. “My plan was to get out of that situation.”
But he said before he could get away, Rosenbaum was allegedly bearing down on him and Ziminski and three other people were blocking his path.
“Once I take that step back, I look over my shoulder and Mr. Rosenbaum was now running from my right side, and I was cornered from in front of me with Mr. Ziminski,” Rittenhouse said.
The teenager then began to break down in sobs on the witness stand, prompting Judge Bruce Schroeder to call a recess.
Following the recess, Rittenhouse regained his composure and returned to the witness stand.
Rittenhouse picked his testimony back up at when he saw Rosenbaum charging toward him.
“Mr. Zimenski stepped towards me. I went to go run south,” Rittenhouse said.
He said Rosenbaum began to chase him he heard Zimenski allegedly tell Rosenbaum “to get him and kill him.”
“As I’m running in that southwest direction, Mr. Rosenbaum throws, at the time I know its a bag now,” Rittenhouse said, adding that he initially thought it was a heavy chain Rosenbaum had been seen carrying earlier in the evening.
“I turn around for about a second while continuing to run and I point my gun at Mr. Rosenbaum,” Rittenhouse said.
Richards asked, “Does that stop him from chasing you?”
Rittenhouse replied, “It does not.”
This is a developing story. Please check, back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices continued to climb at an alarmingly rapid pace last month, according to data from the Labor Department on Wednesday, as inflation woes have cast a shadow over the post-pandemic economic recovery.
The Consumer Price Index, often used as an inflation barometer as it measures the prices consumers pay for everyday goods and services, jumped by a higher-than-expected 0.9% last month. It surged 6.2% since last October, the largest 12-month increase since November 1990, the government said.
The so-called “core index,” or measure for all items except the more volatile food and energy indices, rose 4.6% over the last 12 months. This represents the largest one-year increase since August 1991, the Labor Department said. In October alone, the core index climbed 0.6% after a 0.2% increase in September.
The energy index climbed by some 4.8% last month alone and the gasoline index gained 6.1%. This marks the fifth consecutive monthly increase in gasoline prices.
Increases in consumer prices were seen broadly across many of the indices, the DOL said, with sharp spikes in prices for energy, shelter, food, used cars and trucks. New vehicles were among the largest contributors to the overall price hikes.
The indices for airline fares and alcoholic beverages saw a decline last month, the DOL said.
The price increases have been linked to rebounding consumer demand for goods and services as the pandemic wanes, economists have said. Meanwhile, lingering supply chain issues and an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs have exacerbated the mounting inflation fears among policymakers.
While some had hopes the inflation data seen in recent months reflected a temporary blip, the fresh data released Wednesday likely fuels further concerns about inflation’s grip on the economy going forward. Many are now looking at how the Federal Reserve will respond to the latest indicators as it plans to start rolling back on pandemic measures meant to buoy the economy during the health crisis.
President Joe Biden reacted to the new economic data in a statement Wednesday morning, saying that addressing inflation was a “top priority” for his administration and touting his Build Back Better plan as a way to ameliorate the economic pain it causes.
“Inflation hurts Americans pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me,” the president said, noting the largest share of the increase in prices in the report is due to rising energy costs. The president said he has directed his National Economic Council “to pursue means to try to further reduce these costs, and have asked the Federal Trade Commission to strike back at any market manipulation or price gouging in this sector.”
“Other price increases reflect the ongoing struggle to restore smooth operations in the economy in the restart: I am travelling to Baltimore today to highlight how my Infrastructure Bill will bring down these costs, reduce these bottlenecks, and make goods more available and less costly,” Biden added. “And I want to reemphasize my commitment to the independence of the federal reserve to monitor inflation, and take steps necessary to combat it.”
Biden said that more than a dozen Nobel Prize-winning economists “have said that my plan will ‘ease inflationary pressures,” adding that it does this “without raising taxes on those making less than $400,000 or adding to the federal debt, by requiring the wealthiest and big corporations to start to pay their fair share in taxes.”
“We are making progress on our recovery. Jobs are up, wages are up, home values are up, personal debt is down, and unemployment is down,” the president said. “We have more work to do, but there is no question that the economy continues to recover and is in much better shape today than it was a year ago.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 756,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 10, 8:55 am
Over 900,000 kids 5-11 will have 1st shot by end of day, White House estimates
The White House estimates that by the end of Wednesday over 900,000 children ages 5 to 11 will have received their first vaccine shot.
That’s 3% of the 28 million newly eligible kids in this category.
Another 700,000 kids in that age range have appointments booked at pharmacies to get their first jab, according to the White House.
Nov 09, 10:36 pm
Mask mandate ending in Florida’s largest school district
Masks will be optional for students in Miami-Dade County, Florida’s largest school district, beginning on Friday, the district announced Tuesday.
This change is “based on significantly improved COVID-19 conditions in the community and within our schools,” school officials said in a statement.
Fully vaccinated employees also have the choice to not wear a mask.
Nov 09, 4:41 pm
Boosters required for people 65+ to retain health pass in France
French residents over the age of 65 must get a booster in order to keep their health pass, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.
The health pass, which indicates a person is vaccinated, is mandatory for restaurants, theaters, museums and similar institutions throughout the country.
Nov 09, 3:41 pm
10 states see increase in hospital admissions
Ten states — Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont — have seen an increase in hospital admissions in the last two weeks, according to federal data.
The daily case average in the U.S. has jumped by 12.6% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
Twenty-one states have seen daily cases go up by at least 10% over the last two weeks: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden plans to visit Baltimore on Wednesday to tout his infrastructure bill and highlight his administration’s work to ease port delays as the United States approaches the holiday season with rising inflation and delivery slowdowns on the horizon.
Biden’s visit comes five days after Congress passed his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that, among myriad investments in the nations’ physical infrastructure, will provide $17 billion to revitalize coastal, inland and land ports, as well as strengthen them against the effects of climate change.
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced short- and long-term steps to strengthen U.S. ports as part of an effort to tackle supply chain issues, including using money from the infrastructure bill.
As the U.S. continues to slowly emerge from the pandemic, Biden has been grappling with a crisis up and down the supply chain defined by worker shortages and bottlenecks.
On Tuesday, the president spoke with the CEOs of four major retailers and shipping companies — Walmart, UPS, FedEx and Target — “to discuss steps that the administration and private sector can take to further strengthen our supply chains and build on steps we’ve already taken to speed up deliveries and lower prices,” a White House official said.
Even though the president does not plan to sign the infrastructure bill until next week — he has said he wants to bring Democrats and Republicans together to the White House for a ceremony marking the bipartisan bill’s passage — a senior administration official said Tuesday that work was already underway to get port-related programs started.
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment Tuesday about why Biden chose Baltimore in particular — and not a larger port like Los Angeles or Long Beach in California — but indicated that Biden would have more to say Wednesday.
“Outdated infrastructure has a real cost for families, as we all know, for our economy and for competitiveness,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’re seeing that right now, even as we move record goods through our ports, with supply chain bottlenecks forming that lead to higher prices and lower deliveries for American families.”
To provide immediate relief. the administration will now allow port authorities to redirect project cost savings toward immediate projects to address supply chain challenges, senior administration officials said Tuesday. One official said doing so was a way to “creatively” redirect grant money.
For example, the officials told reporters, the nation’s third-busiest port, in Savannah, Georgia, came under budget on a previous grant and could now use the leftover dollars to build a pop-up yard to store shipping containers; port authorities believe the site could be operational in 30 to 45 days, the officials said.
“It’s a great way to add capacity and efficiency at the port,” an official said. “We expect that that kind of flexibility will help other projects as well.”
The administration also plans to launch a $240 million grant program within the next 45 days to invest in port infrastructure — using money from the infrastructure bill.
Within the next two months, it will identify projects with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction work at coastal ports, inland waterways and other facilities, officials said.
In the next three months, they said, the administration will begin competition for the first round of port infrastructure grants funded by the infrastructure bill. The federal government will also identify ports of entry at the nation’s southern and northern borders that need modernization and expansion.
While the White House wouldn’t say why Biden had chosen to visit the port of Baltimore, an administration official emphasized that the port was a public-private partnership and noted the port was making major investments in adding container cranes and a second deep, 50-foot berth.
The official also highlighted how the administration is helping fund the expansion of a 126 year-old tunnel near the port to accommodate trains carrying containers stacked on top of each other.
“It’s an example of the kind of investments that are needed from both the private and public sector side,” the official said. “It’s also an illustration that the co-funding in the bipartisan infrastructure plan incentivizes the private sector to make these kinds of long-term investments as well.”
(EAST ORANGE, N.J.) — As the search for 14-year-old Jashyah Moore continues, investigators are offering an increased reward of $15,000 after an anonymous local business owner’s donation.
The Moore family planned to hold a search party at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the corner of Amherst Street and Central Avenue, East Orange, New Jersey, Mayor Ted Green said at a Tuesday press conference. There will also be an interfaith prayer vigil at 5:30 p.m. on Friday in front of City Hall.
“Jashyah is one of our own,” Green said. “We’re asking this community, as we have been asking from day one, to help us in locating this young lady.”
Jashyah has been missing since Oct. 14 and her family is pleading with the community to help bring her daughter home.
She was last seen around 10 a.m. at Poppie’s Deli Store in East Orange after her mother asked her to go to the store for groceries. According to police, surveillance footage shows Jashyah entering the store with an older male who paid for her items. However, the footage does not appear to show them leaving the store together, police say.
When she returned home to her mother, Moore said Jashyah had lost the card the family uses for groceries, and Moore told her daughter to retrace her steps to find it.
Moore said that was the last time she saw her daughter.
Jashyah is 5-foot 5-inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing khaki pants, a black jacket and black boots, according to an East Orange City Hall press release.
“I cannot imagine what she might be going through just being away from us this long, being away from her family who loves her very much,” her mother, Jamie Moore, said through tears at a press conference Friday morning. “If anybody knows anything, please, please come forward.”
East Orange Police, the FBI, and the New Jersey State Police are working in collaboration to help find Jashyah. They say if anyone sees her or knows of her whereabouts, to call the East Orange Police at 973-266-5041.
(NEW YORK) — Tongass National Forest stretches across nearly 17 million acres of land in southeast Alaska and is home to a lush vibrant ecosystem. It is now also at the center of a bitter battle between those trying to save the old growth forests and those who say access more of it is critical for the local economy.
Tongass covers more than 80% of southeast Alaska and, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, is responsible for sequestering nearly 8% of all U.S. carbon emissions.
Global leaders have pledged for decades to end deforestation by 2030, but some Alaskan corporations are asking for the opposite and want more access to the forest to support the local economy.
“Where’s your Amazon boxes going to come from? American consumers still want this stuff. We’re producing it here. It’s a good job for us people, good jobs for Alaskans,” said Eric Nichols, the owner of Alcan Alaska Timber Corporation.
Southeast Alaska relies heavily on tourism, and took a major economic blow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nichols, who said he’s had to downsize his company by half because of logging restrictions, said the timber industry is a way to bring consistent jobs back to the area.
“How do you raise a family on $15 an hour for a five-month job?” said Nichols. “How do I do that? I can’t do that. My kids can’t do that.”
Wanda Culp, a Tlingit native, is also worried about the future of this land and her family, but said that the natural forest is critical to their lifestyle. Her tribe has deep ties to the land.
“We depend on this wilderness as Indigenous people,” said Culp.
She noted that her people have used the forest as a natural resource for generations, but that the commercial “clearcutting” method of deforestation is disrespectful and unsustainable.
“We don’t just cut it down and let it land; we create a spot for it to land so it doesn’t split. So it’s worthwhile. That isn’t what happens with clear cuts. It’s total disrespect,” said Culp, who flew to Washington, D.C., in 2019 to protest large-scale deforestation in southeast Alaska.
In the late 1900s, the timber industry and forest clearcutting was prominent in southeast Alaska with nearly a million acres of the Tongass forest chopped down.
Bryce Dahlstrom of Viking Lumber supports clearcutting trees and likened it to any type of farming done across the country.
“It’s a crop that grows back,” said Dahlstrom. “If you don’t want a farmer to cut his corn down, don’t eat corn.”
In January 2001, just days before leaving office, President Bill Clinton enacted the Roadless Rule, which aims to preserve roadless areas by preventing road construction, as well as timber harvesting, on more than 9 million acres in the Tongass National Forest.
Since then, presidential administrations have gone back and forth on whether to keep or dismiss the rule, citing a variety of political reasons. For now, the rule remains in place.
Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has said between wood and minerals, there is untapped natural wealth in Alaska inhibited by the restriction.
“We’re the largest state in the country by far. This forest is larger than most states. There’s incredible opportunity to provide lumber and lumber products for the United States and possibly other parts of the world. This is an opportunity for us to do it here again and provide jobs, revenue and wealth,” said Dunleavy.
Many scientists say the health of the planet cannot be sacrificed for economic growth anymore, especially in places like Tongass, which are “carbon sinks” that help combat rising carbon emissions.
In 2020, 111 scientists from across the country wrote a letter to Biden asking him to permanently install protections in Tongass and create a strategic carbon reserve system.
Despite the restrictions from the Roadless Rule, Tongass is the last national forest that allows large-scale clearcut logging of ancient old-growth trees. Some argue it’s not an issue because trees can be replanted.
“[Trees] are a renewable resource. We cut trees down because there’s a demand for that product,” said Nichols.
But conservationist Meredith Trainor disagrees. She said the older the trees, the more effective they are at removing carbon dioxide and that an entire forest cannot be replaced so easily.
“There is no one tree scenario where we’re going to solve climate change, right? This is about managing a whole forest or a certain way,” said Trainor. “It’s the whole system that works together to sequester carbon and old growth is much more effective at doing that than young growth.”
The timber industry in southeast Alaska is only allowed to work in 2% of Tongass. Loggers like Nichols argue that’s not enough.
He wants to expand access even further, potentially giving loggers access to an additional half a million acres.
“I want enough to have an industry. We need about 5, maybe 6%, to continue to have a continuous industry up here,” said Nichols.
Scientists argue that the whole Alaskan ecosystem is connected. They believe that expanding the logging industry may have a negative effect on the region’s other largest employment sector: commercial fishing.
In Sitka, Alaska, an island town of about 8,000, they rely heavily on salmon fisheries. Fisherman Marsh Skeele said that the expansion of logging puts fishermen’s livelihoods at risk.
“[Logging] damages streams and lakes — freshwater ecosystems that salmon rely on, that fishermen rely on, that this community relies on,” said Skeele. “They’re kind of ignoring all the jobs that are tied to what exists already.”
Dunleavy said that it’s imperative to look at Alaska for all its potential and that doesn’t necessarily mean change is bad for the future of the state.
“There’s this narrative that’s trying to be pushed that if you touch Alaska, you will damage it permanently and ruin it. That’s not the case. It’s not the case at all,” said Dunleavy.
While some believe expanding access to Tongass National Forest could help more people than it could harm, a tug-of-war continues in southeast Alaska between the environment and the economy.
As for Culp, she said that the climate crisis is an issue that cannot be ignored any longer.
“We are in a serious, serious climate crisis. Why can’t we start repairing our habitat?” said Culp. “Why can’t we protect what we have? I want my great-granddaughter to be able to walk this land and breathe this fresh air, touch these trees, know who they are. It’s not much to ask.”
